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I would consider him one of the most important composers in the history of music. Without him where will our music be today? He is one of the most influential and creative composers of all time. Also an excellent teacher and also a pretty good painter (he taught his next door neighbour George Gershwin how to paint).

Some of your Russian romantic choices are interesting. Brave effort, I suppose. I've no doubt that its better than most, including myself could do, but how can you try this and expect to be anywhere close to perfect. My list would look different, and may be a little less valid in spots, due to less overall knowledge, but also simply due to different personal judgements.

Out of almost morbid curiosity, would you say you are capable of going on and ranking another 400 composers? I'm not asking you to do it, I just wonder if you are capable and if the idea almost strikes your fancy.

As fallible as I am, I believe he used the great-o-meter, which is a device that Apollo, the patron god of music and poetry, invented for us mortals so that we may do his bidding and turn music into a science without thinking about personal preferences and other inhibiting concepts. Though, to be honest, that doesn't take into account what Zeus might think of Apollo's personal preferences.

I would consider him one of the most important composers in the history of music. Without him where will our music be today? He is one of the most influential and creative composers of all time. Also an excellent teacher and also a pretty good painter (he taught his next door neighbour George Gershwin how to paint).

I agree he was great teacher, but I feel his methods and ideologies occupy a much smaller place in the history of music than many other great 20th century composers. No doubt of his genius though and I wouldn't necessarily object to him being just on the outskirts of the top 20. He could never sit in front of Mahler though in my opinion, a composer with whom I relate him to in a way.

Out of almost morbid curiosity, would you say you are capable of going on and ranking another 400 composers? I'm not asking you to do it, I just wonder if you are capable and if the idea almost strikes your fancy.

I think I would be too bold to say I know 400 composers' works and historical value intimately. To be honest, I'm too bold to suggest I know 100 of them well enough. Just to know one of those composers extremely well is quite a task. I could probably list 400 composers and I could probably do it in some sort of order, but it would be total guesses at that point. In this list, I really tried to assess whatever memories I've had talking with people.

Scarlatti is a great composer, but his 500+ one movement sonatas are just not quite the right motivation for me to put him higher. Copland is one I think American's adore, but outside of that I could see him being totally ignored.

My list, I really just made to dilute the romantic era emphasis. Those Renaissance composers are great. I listen to them a lot. And they get totally ignored on best of lists. Josquin is a much better composer than Mendelssohn. Palestrina is a genius compared to someone even as wonderful Grieg. It's so easy to dismiss the early stuff. The later stuff too gets oddly dismissed. Varese, Ligeti, Boulez, Webern are truly top composers. Messiaen in my opinion is the greatest composer born in the 20th Century after Shostakovich, but I think Messiaen's influence is still being weighed, and one day he may even be recalled as the supreme 20th Century composer over Shostakovich.

David Mahler, I think you might really enjoy Copland's 1st symphony. Have you ever heard it? It was written two ways, the purely orchestral version is superior to the organ symphony in my opinion. It might change the way you think about Copland.